how to self-publish

This post is a basic overview, and is aimed at helping those who are writing, or who have written a book, and would like to see it published.

While this post focuses on self-publishing with Amazon, I’m
going to briefly cover the three most common avenues to publishing.

Traditional publishing- For an unknown author this method requires the most effort and often yields the least results. Querying agents to represent you to traditional publishers is not only time consuming, but it can be demoralizing as well—prepare for rejection. I finally gave up on finding a better than thou publishing agent when I learned that the odds of an unpublished author landing one, is roughly 1 in 6,000. I was given that number by a professional in the publishing industry.

The Vanity Press- A vanity press is a publisher that, if you pay them, they will publish your book. We’ve all seen the TV commercials, “Have you written a book and want it published? Call us, we’ll publish your book and get it in bookstores everywhere.” Once it’s published, they will also market your book, and you will receive zero royalties from the books they sell. Leaving the author with a slim market margin to sell and receive their own royalties.If you want to make any kind of money from publishing and selling your book, this is not the way to go.

Self-publishing- This option will likely leave you less frustrated, less demoralized, and more optimistic. It did for me. Self-publishing puts the author in complete control of their book, from formatting, to cover design, to marketing and making money from their work.

The outline below will lead you down the pathway to self-publishing your book. Take one step at a time, focus on the task at hand, and you can have your book published and available for purchase sooner than you might think. It’s very possible to go from blank page to published book in less than 90 days.